[skrebbel]

Intel used to have a CPU line called the "Core m" which allowed fanless use. I had Lenovo laptop with one and i loved it. But they were hard to find then already, and i think they discontinued the line. My theory is that reviewers and benchmarkers don't care enough about "fanless" and gave them bad reviews ("slow for the price") while not highlighting the major advantage that being fanless is.

[Tagbert]

Those Core M chips were slow. That is part of why Apple eventually dropped that 12” MacBook.

Now Apple’s M-series chips combine power with low power usage and they are able to build fast and fanless devices like the M1 MacBook Air.

Intel and AMD have been focused on building for power and have been, mostly, ignoring efficiency for too long. Hopefully, Apple’s newfound success in this area has waken them to the need to address power consumption.

[theropost]

I have a Chromebook with a m3-8100y, and it is pretty good for general surfing and video. Not the fastest chip, but does the trick. I find it a big slower in RDP, but otherwise no complaints.

[replygirl]

iirc they discontinued those because most of the sales were to apple for the 12” macbook, but they still essentially make that product tier as lower power i-series